Grace Wales Bonner to curate an exhibition at MoMA

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York has announced that London-based fashion designer Grace Wales Bonner will curate an exhibition opening in November.

Wales Bonner will bring together 50 artworks from MoMA’s collection that explore forms of black style, gesture, performance, and sounds of the African diaspora as part of the museum’s ‘Artist’s Choice’ series.

'Artist’s Choice: Grace Wales Bonner—Spirit Movers' will run from November 18 to April 7, 2024, and showcase works from artists, including Terry Adkins, Moustapha Dimé, Agnes Martin, Man Ray, Betye Saar, and David Hammons.

Each piece has been selected to embody the idea of “Spirit Movers,” which, according to Wales Bonner, evoke multiple histories, inspire contemplation, and conjure new connections between people and places.

Commenting on curating the exhibition, Wales Bonner, said in a statement: “It is an immense honour to engage with the artists and works in MoMA's collection, and I wish to extend my deepest thanks to the museum for allowing me the space to create so freely.

“I hope the exhibition and associated publication resound with the spirit of the contributing artists and continue to conjure new dreams and new visions.”

As part of the exhibition, MoMA will also publish an artist’s book titled ‘Grace Wales Bonner: Dream in the Rhythm—Visions of Sound and Spirit,’ assembled by Wales Bonner as “an archive of soulful expression.” The volume will feature nearly 80 works that draw multisensory connections between pictures and poems, music and performance, hearing and touch, gestures and vibrations, and bodies in motion.

Michelle Kuo, exhibition curator at MoMA, added: “Grace Wales Bonner has changed the way we see style—not only as surface but as structure. Every detail of her polymathic designs, publications, exhibitions, and films is related to long histories, deep archives, and cultural identities across the diasporic world.

“Like her exhibition, this book is a deeply personal meditation on and around modern Black expression—and it reflects Wales Bonner’s commitment to archival research as both a form of spirituality and an aesthetic practice.”